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Area 11
Area 11 is a band consisting of Sparkles*, Alex Parvis, Jonathan Kogan and Leo Taylor, and formerly Luke Owens. They formed in late 2010, during what Sparkles* called a 'disastrous jam session '. Luke, Parv and Sparkles* then discovered their shared love of anime while watching episode 22 of the anime Code Geass: "Blood Stained Euphy". This episode inspired the lyrics of the song Euphemia, and in the anime, Japan is known as 'Area 11' which provides the name for the band itself. Along side their music Area 11 also post playthroughs of games and different comedy sketches on their Youtube channel. They played a series of Worms Revolution which features the band and guest Duncan. Parv has also done a playthrough of the Witcher 2. Sparkles* has also done a playthrough of the very first Tomb Raider game. Sparkles* and Sjin are doing a playthrough of Day of the Tentacle. Leo also started a playthrough of Prince of Persia Kogie works on a lot of different sketches for the Area 11 channel which include Double Leg Cross, Riddles and Cereal. History The band formed on October 4th 2010 but did not decide on a name untill October 8th after they wrote Euphemia. In December 2012, Area 11 made a song called Minecraft Christmas to help raise funds for the Yogscast Honey Drive 2012 fundraiser. On January 31st 2013 Area 11 released their first album All The Lights In The Sky. This finished at 75th in the UK album charts and 10th in the UKs Rock album charts. In April 2013, Area 11 released their single Shi No Barado, featuring vocalist Beckii Cruel, taken from their debut album All The Lights In The Sky. This single charted at number 12 in the Indie charts and number 1 on the Indie breakers charts. Along side their release of Shi No Barado, Area 11 did a Minecraft series called Gigacraft which has many links to Digital Haunt. 250 hard copies of the single were made, some were sent to magazines or blogs to be reviewed. The rest were sold at Area 11s gigs along with limited edition Shi No Barado t-shirts. After Area 11 finished their gigs they then sold the remaining CDs and t-shirts on their website which sold out in under two hours. When buying these CDs Elevens were given the chance to request for it to be signed by the band and possibly Adam Davis and/or Beckii Cruel.This can be seen in the picture to the right. The band released a new single entitled "Go!! Fighting Action Power" on the Sunday of May 12th, 2013. This single was made for the new cartoon 'Bravoman' and can be seen here . This can also be seen live here. Sparks told the people in Radio Sparkles* that the band was already working on new music and they had 2 bars of a new song already. He also explained that band hope to bring back songs that were cut from All The Lights In The Sky such as Human is Dead;Mismatch and Homunculus. On Friday the 19th of July, Area 11 streamed a live gig from here. Their set list included System;Start , Vectors , Go!! Fighting Action Power , Knightmare/Frame , a cover of Haruka Kanata , The Strays , Euphemia , Shi No Barado with Beckii and finishing with Heaven-Piercing Giga Drill . This can be viewed here . On September 12th 2013, Sparkles announced that Area 11 were going to release All the Lights in the Sky as a physical album, with around about 1000 copies being made. Sparkles invited fans to be a part of the album by recording parts for Heaven Piercing Giga-Drill and Bōsōzoku Symphonic - All the Lights in the Sky. By the deadline the fans recordings had to be in, Area 11 had received 663 submissions that Sparkles then had to put together for the track. The announcement can be viewed here. 8th of October 2013 marks 3 years of Area 11 being a band as this was the date they decided apon a name and wrote Euphemia together. To mark this day the band re-released the original Knightmare/Frame(2012) which came with 3 b-sides; Knightmare/Frame instrumental, a demo of Legendary Sannin and Sparkles* Euphemia Trance Remix. On 11/11/13 at 11:11pm GMT Area 11 re-launched their site . On the site featured a 45 second trailer which is rumored to be hinting at many things! Feel free to post your theories on the digital haunt random theories page! On the 15/11/13 Area 11 confirmed on their website that they would be releasing Heaven Piercing Giga Drill as their last single from All The Lights In The Sky to say goodbye to the album, on the 25/11/13. This had been in the works for a while since asking fans to be part of the new song. It was then released a day earlier (24/11/13) with a music video. Along with the new single they released a B-Side of a full length version of All The Lights In The Sky and an off-vocal track of Heaven-Piercing Giga Drill. On the 5th of December Parv was taking part in the Yogscast live stream when him and Sparks teased that the phyiscal copies of ATLITS had just arrived. 19/12/13 was when a new video was launched which had links to Area 11s newly formed online store that allowed fans to order the phyiscal copy of the ATLITS album. Also on the site was album art posters, hoodies and new long sleeved shirts. On the 30th December Sparks' played the video to the left for the first time on the Yogs livestream which was later used as Area 11s relaunch of the channel on 1st January where they plan to release 5 videos a week. Musical Style Area 11 inhabit a particular niche in the modern music scene, with an exciting twist on bland generic rock. The band coined the term 'Gaijin Rock' to describe their music, with 'Gaijin' being Japanese for 'outsider', or someone who is not native to Japan. This is owed to the fact that Area 11's music is a blend between fast-paced rock, a slither of pop and heavy Japanese influences. Indeed, many of their songs display this clearly, such as with the use of Koto samples in the intro to The Legendary Sannin. Many of the band's songs are influenced by anime, and the lyrics are based on either specific episodes in the animes or general themes in them. The songs are inspired by: Code Geass (Euphemia, Knightmare/Frame), Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (Heaven-Piercing Giga Drill), Elfen Lied (Vectors), Fooly Cooly (Tokyo House Party), Death Note (Shi No Barado), Cowboy Bebop (The Strays), Naruto (The Legendary Sannin), Steins;Gate (Homunculus), Bravoman (Go!! Fighting Action Power) and the manga series Bakuman (Dream & Reality). Discography - Albums Blackline EP On the 3rd September 2011, Area 11 released the EP Blackline under Sparkles*'s own record label, Breaking the Boredom. The track listing was as follows: #Euphemia #The Legendary Sannin #Heaven-Piercing Giga Drill BLACKLINE 「COMPLETE」 A re-release of the EP, under the Yogscast Studios record label, was available for a short time on Area 11's Bandcamp, containing alternative artwork, demos and remixes, from the 11th January 2013: Kogie.jpg Theband.jpg tumblr_mnlx993qUx1rxrvvbo3_500.jpg|Area 11 from the crowd tumblr_mnlx993qUx1rxrvvbo1_500.jpg|Shi No Barado #Euphemia #The Legendary Sannin #Heaven-Piercing Giga Drill #Euphemia【Demo】 #The Legendary Sannin 【Demo】 #Heaven-Piercing Giga Drill 【Demo】 #Euphemia 【Off Vocal】 #The Legendary Sannin 【Off Vocal】 #Heaven-Piercing Giga Drill 【Off Vocal】 #Euphemia 【Sparkles* Trance Remix】 #Heaven-Piercing Giga Drill 【Echo Inada Remix】 All The Lights In The Sky Area 11's first LP was released under Yogscast Studios on the 31st January 2013. It debuted at 75 on the UK charts and at 10 on the UK Rock and Indie charts. The track listing was almost entirely new, and contained many brand-new songs: #System;Start #Vectors #Euphemia #Knightmare/Frame #Tokyo House Party #Shi No Barado (feat. Beckii Cruel) #Cassandra (Pt II) #The Strays #Dream & Reality #Heaven-Piercing Giga Drill #Bōsōzoku Symphonic All The Lights In The Sky - Complete CD 1 - Full album CD 2 - Off Vocal CD 3 - Commentary CD 4 - Extra Discography - Singles *Dota 2 Beta Key (2011) *Knightmare/Frame (2012) *Reply Boyz (2012) *Minecraft Christmas (2012) *Shi No Barado (feat. Beckii Cruel ) (2013) *Go!! Fighting Action Power (2013) *Knightmare/Frame Original (2013) Connection to Project S* Various members of the band have been granted access to the original Project S* Google Document before the Digital Haunt Wiki went live. Since Sparkles*'s own project has been in action since over four years before Area 11's formation, the rest of the band members did not contribute to the inital groundwork of the 'concept album', however it appears the band have all been briefed on Sparkles*'s work due to their evasiveness of question's regarding various topics, such as Cassandra, Pt. II, one of the only things released by the band not related to anime or gaming. Area 11 created Gigacraft, a Minecraft series on YouTube which is said by Sparkles* to be related to Cassandra. Most of Area 11's songs are assmued to be linked to this concept idea. The trailer for All The Lights In The Sky Complete features a screen with Areas 1-20 on it, with various coloured lights. This could be incorporating the band name into the story or concept idea. Their new Youtube banner features the characters "BA 6" which could relate to "BA 11" which appeared in the ATLITS COMPLETE announcement video. Gigs *March 1st 2013 - The Pipeline, London *May 8th 2013 - The KOKO, London *May 15th 2013 - The Pipeline, London *July 19th 2013 - justjamit.com *August 23rd 2013 - Minecraft Expo, Telford * September 21st 2013 - Matsuri Festival Brighton Japan * December 1st 2013 - The Louisiana, Birstol * July 20th - The Exchange, Bristol * July 24th - The Bodega, Nottingham * July 25th - Cabaret Voltaire, Edinburgh * July 27th - The Bedford, London * November 2nd - The Exchange, Bristol * November 3rd - Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff * November 4th - The Roadhouse, Manchester * November 5th - The Zanzibar, Liverpool * November 9th - Voodoo, Belfast * November 11th - Brickyard, Carlisle * November 12th - Classic Grand, Glasgow * November 13th - Cabaret Voltaire, Edinburgh * November 16th - Corporation, Sheffield * November 17th - The Fenton, Leeds * November 18th - Fibbers, York * November 19th - The Shed, Leicester * November 20th - The Bedford, London * November 21st - Chameleon, Nottingham * November 22nd - Oobleck, Birmingham * November 23rd - The Portland Arms, Cambridge * November 24th - Joiners, Southampton * November 25th - The Fat Fox - Portsmouth * November 27th - Mr Kyps, Poole Trivia *A remixed version of Euphemia became the outro theme to the Yogscast YouTube channel 'BlueXephos' after a copy of Blackline EP came into Lewis Brindley's hands. *Many other sections of their songs appear on different Yogscast videos. *The banner image on the Area 11 Myspace page is a picture of mountains. Possibly some connection to the ATLITS art or to the Prologue III art. Last login was 29/05/2013. *The Band's Youtube channel features videos of the band members playing games, and various comedy sketches written by and starring the band. *Luke Owens and Tim Yearsley are past members of Area 11. External Links *Area 11's Wikipedia page *Area 11 on Soundcloud *Area 11 on Yogscast Wiki *Area 11 on Twitter *Area 11's Bandcamp (Back up in America!) *Area 11 website Category:Music Category:Area 11 Category:Bands Category:Singles Category:Songs Category:General